Michael Kelly

Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Post

April 3, 2003, in outside of Baghdad, Iraq

Kelly, editor-at-large of the Atlantic Monthly and a columnist with The Washington Post, was killed while traveling with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division just south of the Baghdad airport, according to a statement from The Washington Post.

According to press reports, when the humvee in which Kelly was riding came under Iraqi fire, the soldier driving the vehicle tried to evade the attack, and the jeep ran off the road and rolled into a canal. Both Kelly and the driver drowned.

Kelly, who had previously served as the editor of The New Republic and the National Journal, was the first U.S. journalist killed while covering the war.